68th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women
Side Event
“Breaking the link between poverty and violence against women and girls:
the role of gender mainstreaming in policymaking and in financing”
Wednesday March 13th, 2024, 10:00-11:15 AM EST, Conference Room F, UNHQ
Violence against women and girls is an everyday reality taking place in every corner of our world, deeply rooted in structural inequalities, gender stereotypes, harmful social norms and discrimination towards women and girls. At the same time, poverty is a complex and multidimensional challenge, exacerbated by factors such as instability and fragility caused, among other factors, by conflicts, climate change and pandemics.
Women experience higher poverty rates than men, while women and girls in poverty are more vulnerable to violence. Over 340 million women and girls will live in extreme poverty by 2030, if current trends continue, according to the Gender Snapshot 2023. Lack of income and resources, hunger, homelessness, lack or limited access to education and training opportunities for quality employment, lack of access to health care systems, as well as social discrimination, to name but a few of the manifestations of poverty that directly affect women and girls.
Poverty can increase violence; from domestic abuse and rape, to sexual exploitation such as trafficking. Women and girls with low income, can hardly escape from domestic or intimate partner violence, that can also lead to femicides, due to the lack of income and resources. While poverty marginalizes women, violence also isolates them.
Gender mainstreaming perspective in all aspects of policymaking, including financing, is a sine qua non for addressing poverty and breaking its link with violence against women and girls. Gender mainstreaming was established as a major global strategy for the promotion of gender equality in the Beijing Platform for Action from the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 followed by the ECOSOC agreed conclusions (1997/2) establishing important overall principles for gender mainstreaming including the ECOSOC resolution (2001/41). The important role of gender disaggregated poverty data in addressing gender inequalities should not be omitted in this effort.
On the occasion of the 68th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the Permanent Missions of Cyprus, Panama and Portugal to the United Nations, the Jordanian National Commission for Women, and UN Women are hosting this side event with the following objectives:
- To explore how gender mainstreaming in policies and the integration of a gender perspective in State financing and budgeting can eliminate gender-based violence.
- To discuss the importance of the methodology of gender mainstreaming as a tool to improve the quality of public, financing policies, programs and projects targeting women and girls’ victims of gender-based violence and those living in poverty.
- To discuss how financing gaps for addressing women’s poverty and identify how diverse sources of financing can be mobilized and spent to tackle the structural causes of poverty.
- To share and exchange policies and strategies on how the creation of quality and decent jobs, including equal pay and quality education, can break the link between poverty and violence against women and girls.
- To highlight how synergies between States, enterprises, civil society, and academia can contribute to the elimination of violence against women and girls.
The event will be conducted in a panel format comprised by UN Member States, UN Women, Council of Europe and civil society organizations. The programme will be announced soon.
For in person attendance, please register your participation here by 11 March 2024 (for UN Badge holders only).
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